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The bad stretch of road that the Clippers have driven the past two weeks finally forced manager
Chris Tremie to shut the clubhouse door last night in Huntington Park for a team meeting.

The Durham Bulls had just completed a four-game series sweep with a 5-1 victory. It marked the
sixth consecutive loss for the Clippers and the 10th in the past 12 games.

“We haven’t been playing as good of baseball as we’re capable over the last couple of series,”
Tremie said. “It just kind of culminated tonight. It was no one individual. So we just had a
discussion about that.”

The game felt over after Durham’s Mikie Mahtook hit a three-run homer off Danny Salazar (0-2) in
the third inning.

Mike Montgomery deserved some of the credit for that perception. The Bulls left-hander stymied
the Columbus offense over seven shutout innings. He didn’t allow a hit until Tim Fedroff doubled
with two outs in the fifth inning.

The Clippers also committed four errors that permitted Durham to score three unearned runs. So
Tremie called the meeting.

“We’re getting a little flat-footed at times,” Tremie said. “But that tends to go with the
circumstances that we’re in right now. So the one thing we can do is pick the energy level up and
see where that gets us as far as how much better we play.”

Salazar made his second start for the Clippers since the Cleveland Indians optioned him to
triple-A on May 16. His sizzling performance for the Clippers last season earned him a place in the
Cleveland rotation. Struggles with his command in April and May led to the demotion.

In his first start at Syracuse, Salazar needed 70 pitches to get through 22/3 innings. He looked
better while pitching 51/3 innings this time.

“He was working on a few things with (pitching coach Tony Arnold),” catcher Luke Carlin said. “
He had a better fastball today. There was more consistency with him today. I thought everything got
better as the game went along. He just ran out of pitches.”

The electricity that Salazar flashed with a high-90s fastball in 2013 remained under wraps. He
topped out at 96 mph.

“I was talking to (Arnold) about some of his fastballs,” Carlin said. “He was like, ‘Those good
fastballs today were his worst fastballs last year.’ There were flashes of that today. So that was
nice.”

The Clippers open a series with the Charlotte Knights at 6:55 tonight.

Akron outfielder Tyler Holt is also expected to join the Clippers today to take the roster spot
of the injured Matt Carson.